I can
wait patiently, after that, for the day that gives me back my good name.
Oh, my Lady, don't cry about it! Pray, pray don't cry!"
Lady Lydiard's self-control failed her for the first time. Isabel's
courage had made Isabel dearer to her than ever. She sank into a chair,
and covered her face with her handkerchief. Mr. Troy turned aside
abruptly, and examined a Japanese vase, without any idea in his mind
of what he was looking at. Lady Lydiard had gravely misjudged him in
believing him to be a heartless man.
Isabel followed the lawyer, and touched him gently on the arm to rouse
his attention.
"I have one relation living, sir--an aunt--who will receive me if I go
to her," she said simply. "Is there any harm in my going? Lady Lydiard
will give you the address when you want me. Spare her Ladyship, sir, all
the pain and trouble that you can."
At last the heart that was in Mr. Troy asserted itself. "You are a
fine creature!" he said, with a burst of enthusiasm. "I agree with Lady
Lydiard--I believe you are innocent, too; and I will leave no effort
untried to find the proof of it." He turned aside again, and had another
look at the Japanese vase.
As the lawyer withdrew himself from observation, Moody approached
Isabel.
Thus far he had stood apart, watching her and listening to her in
silence. Not a look that had crossed her face, not a word that
had fallen from her, had escaped him. Unconsciously on her side,
unconsciously on his side, she now wrought on his nature with a
purifying and ennobling influence which animated it with a new life.
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